Trevor Horsnell
Ian Brown
Ian Brown is a third
generation tenant on the
156ha (385-acre) Lee Moor
Farm, Rennington, Alnwick,
Northumberland where he
grows winter wheat, barley
and oilseed rape as well as
spring peas
LAST years wet and delayed harvest means the 1999 service is running slightly late in Northumberland.
Frustrating enough as it is, it is made worse by the internet predicting a wheat harvest to be wrapped up within two weeks. Geography means a later harvest for us but as long as we get the right weather, at the right time, it is not a burden; simply three weeks longer each year to feed our stomach ulcers and play with our worry beads.
Our combine is ready to go and a specially adapted header for picking up oilseed rape has been fitted. In this part of the world desiccation does not occur au naturel so swathing is the normal practice. However, glyphosate has never been cheaper and some have shifted to spraying rather than swathing.
My decision to buy the header is aimed at getting some extra contract work for the combine at a time of the year when we are not too frantic. With current low prices some may be considering dropping the crop, but I feel it is the one broadacre crop where prices can bounce very quickly.
The building conversions are just about finished and we have just the tarmac to put in place. Not by dodgy men, with thick regional accents in transit vans with a free load of tar "from a job on the A1", I hasten to add. Opening is planned for Sep 17 and I have written to the non-shuffled Rt Hon Nick Brown to do the honours. I eagerly await a response.
One of our new tenants has a catering facility on-site and so we have decided to mark national beef day, Aug 1, with a barbecue.
As an ex beef farmer I find this rather ironic since the building was once a cattle-shed. Now it is filled with all sorts of exciting businesses, including the caterers.
Next time I write, my new yield meter on the combine will be tried, and hopefully tested, by some heavy crops.
Bill Harbour
Bill Harbour is manager for
GosmereFarm Partners at
448ha (1107-acre) Gosmere
Farm, Sheldwich, Faversham,
Kent. Crops include wheat,
barley, oilseed rape, peas
and beans plus
cherries under the
Countryside Stewardship
scheme
AFTER the hot weekend of July 17-18 we started cutting oilseed rape on the Monday morning.
Yields are only average at 3.3-4/ha (27-32cwt/acre) and we have had one field less than that. Locally I have not heard of anyone getting excited with the crop and anyone who has paid a high rent on a FBT could be in trouble with the price, especially if they have only got 1t/acre. No doubt some enterprising management consultant or accountant will be holding seminars this winter on How to spread your losses.
We should finish the oilseed rape today, July 30, and move straight into our wheats. The first to go will be some December sown Samoa spring wheat followed by Malacca winter wheat. That variety has looked good all through and if it does as well as it did last year in seed plots then we will sow a lot more this autumn – I have got some C1 in the ground. Peas have started to go off quickly and will come off earlier than usual, as will the winter beans.
Looking forward to the autumn offensive, we have bought a new plough. A Lemken Euro 8 six-furrow replaces the dreadful Overum. That has been a nightmare for three years due to breakages and replacement parts; I was of the impression that the Swedes were good engineers, but not any more. Despite having this new toy we will do less ploughing this year, discing and spraying off rape stubbles before wheat instead.
Our oilseed rape area will be cut next year, possibly increasing pulses. Wheat will be limited to just two milling and two soft feed varieties, bar some Shamrock on seed contract. Originally that was with BDR, but due to the sale of BDRs business to SCATS, perhaps I should say with SCATS. I hope that does not make a mess of it. Hereward, as the only fully recommended class 1, has to be included alongside Malacca, and the softs will be Consort and Claire.
Jim Bullock
Jim Bullock farms 283ha
(700 acres) in partnership
with his parents and brother
at Mill Farm, Guarlford,
Malvern, Worcs. Two-thirds
is rented or contract farmed,
the rest owned. Cropping is
winter wheat, winter oilseed
rape and winter beans
OVER a week without rain has been a real joy, allowing us to harvest oilseed rape and winter linseed with a minimum of drying.
Not only does it save money, but, more importantly, time.
Goodness knows how you harvest linseed in a wet year. Even in last weeks ideal conditions as soon as the sun set it wrapped on just about anything on the combine header. Half the crop was desiccated with diquat and the rest with glyphosate to see which was most effective. With temperatures in the 80s and drying winds there was little difference in "harvestibility", but the glyphosate has dealt with any remaining weeds more effectively.
To date the most exciting outcome of harvest is that our top yielding crops, both of oilseed rape and winter linseed, were established using no-till drilling.
The no-till rape crop produced 4t/ha (32cwt/acre). Next best was the ploughed and cultivated area at 3.5t/ha (28cwt/acre) and the poorest was where we had minimally cultivated. In this case we drilled before all the volunteers and weeds had chitted and it only managed 2.6t/ha (21cwt/acre). The lesson has to be that if you do not have time to create a stale seed-bed that can be sprayed off effectively before drilling, it is better to no-till drill or plough and cultivate.
On the linseed the no-till drilled area yielded a staggering 20% more than where we ploughed and cultivated. But even with this increase, the yield is still only 1.25t/ha (10cwt/acre).
These are one-off, single-site, results. But if we can match our conventional yields using the no-till system the technique has a lot going for it. Looking at the cost and time savings involved I know which we will be doing this autumn.
Wheat harvest started at the end of last week, with some Hereward that had burnt up coming in at about 7.5t/ha (3t/acre). That is 10 days earlier than last year, and the moisture was already down to 12%.
Trevor Horsnell
Trevor Horsnell, a former
Sugar Beet Grower of the
Year, part owns and rents
182ha (450 acres) at
Gorrells Farm, Highwood,
Chelmsford, Essex. Besides
beet, his cropping includes
potatoes and winter wheat,
barley and oilseed rape
JUST 6mm (0.2in) of rain in July and some scorching winds has seen irrigators going flat out and combining fitted in between moves.
What I thought was going to be a late start to harvest has turned out to be just the opposite.
On July 17 the combine tentatively entered a very green strawed crop of Gaelic, a full week earlier than last year. Grain moisture was surprisingly low, at 12%, and, after last years disappointing crop, yield was satisfactory at 9.1t/ha (3.7t/acre). The high specific weight of 73kg/hl means it will make good feed for the cattle.
Having tried all methods of harvesting oilseed rape in the past I much prefer to direct combine, using glyphosate only around the headlands. It does require a bit of patience, the right variety, and a clean crop. But it produces the best results with little risk of crop loss due to shedding or too many red immature seeds.
This years crop has averaged 3.6t/ha (29cwt/acre), which, although up on last year, is disappointing as the bulk was Pronto. But a side-by-side yield comparison with Contact showed the hybrid to be producing an extra 0.6t/ha (5cwt/acre). At current prices that more than justifies Prontos place next year, especially as we will have to buy all our seed anyway.
I sometimes wonder why we bother escorting our combine on the road. Most oncoming car drivers do not seem to take a blind bit of notice of the escort vehicle complete with wide load sign. They only slow up when faced with a near metre-wide combine tyre in the middle of their windscreen. Like Michael Schumacher, I, too, found my brakes a little wanting recently when I encountered someone on a bend driving like the Ferrari ace himself. The combine and I ended up slightly entangled in the hedge. Like most farmers, I always pull over to allow traffic to pass; It would be nice to be shown the same courtesy in return once in a while.